Breakdown of Jo højere indkomstskatten er, des mindre køber vi.
være
to be
vi
we
købe
to buy
høj
tall, high
mindre
less / smaller
jo
the (correlative: the more …, the more …)
des
the (used in the more... the more...)
indkomstskatten
the income tax
Questions & Answers about Jo højere indkomstskatten er, des mindre køber vi.
Why does the sentence use jo in the first part and des in the second part?
In Danish, "the [more]..., the [more]..." is usually expressed with jo ..., jo ... or jo ..., des .... They mean exactly the same thing. The first part always uses jo, but for the second part, you can choose between jo and des. Some speakers prefer des to clearly mark the second half of the sentence.
Why is the word order indkomstskatten er (subject-verb) in the first half, but køber vi (verb-subject) in the second half?
The first part starting with jo acts as a subordinate (dependent) clause, so it keeps the standard subject-verb order (indkomstskatten er). The second part starting with des is the main clause. Because the phrase des mindre takes up the first position in this main clause, the verb must come second to follow the Danish V2 rule, resulting in the inverted order køber vi.
How is the word indkomstskatten put together?
It is a compound noun made of indkomst (income) and skat (tax). Notice that the definite article suffix is attached only to the very end of the whole compound word, making it indkomstskatten (the income tax).
Why use højere here instead of another comparative word like mere (more) or større (bigger)?
Just like in English, Danish describes amounts like taxes, rates, and prices on a vertical scale as being high (høj) or low (lav). Therefore, when income tax goes up, it becomes højere (higher).
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